Made By Smree

  As you’ve seen from some of my previous book review posts, I’ve been given the opportunity to read a few ARC (advance reader copies) of several books over the past couple years.  For some of them, I was asked by the author to read and review.  However, a few months back I received a message on Goodreads extending an invitation for me to join a site called BookSirens , and after doing some research into it, I decided to join.  And if you enjoy reading and reviewing books, you should consider joining too!  On BookSirens, authors can post their books in order to obtain reviews on various sites like Amazon, Goodreads, and others.  Readers can join (for free!) and review the books (again, for free!) that are posted.  There are thousands of books available, from all sorts of genres, and I’ve been impressed with what I’ve read so far!  Some of them have been better than others, naturally, but I’ve been able to read some great works for free! The amount of time you’re given to read a book

The Timepiece and the Girl Who Went Astray by O.R. Simmonds My rating: 0 of 5 stars View all my reviews

  Shortly after my last post, I realized I may have gotten ahead of myself a little bit.  Oops.  My last post, if you recall, was the very first article I had written and submitted as an Honorary Reporter for Korea.net.  But I completely forgot to mention that I had been accepted as an Honorary Reporter, much less explain any of it.   So that’s what I’m doing now! I found out about the Honorary Reporter program earlier in the year through a Facebook group for the K-Friends program I joined last year.  After doing some research into it, I applied for the program back in March, and found out I had been accepted in April.  Also around the same time, I applied to be part of the 2021 K-Influencer Academy, another program offered by Korea.net, and found out I had been accepted into that as well!  But what does all of this mean ? The Honorary Reporters, to quote this article from Korea.net : “consist of foreign nationals both in and out of Korea who promote Korean culture, information and e

Maybe you have decided that this year will be the year that you learn Korean (or maybe another language!).  While learning a new language can be incredibly rewarding and beneficial, it can also be a difficult endeavor.  Though I am not a language learning expert, here are three simple tips for Korean learners that have helped me along my journey. 1) Do something language study related every single day.  Whether it’s five minutes or fifty minutes, do something every single day that can help you progress.  For example, I typically try to spend around thirty minutes each day studying Korean.  But let’s be honest, sometimes that just isn’t possible!  To help myself stay on track, I utilize the Duolingo app, and here’s why;  On days I don’t have a lengthy amount of time to study, I can do one or two quick lessons, or even just a simple review.  Even those small increments of time will make an impact, and can help you along your language-learning journey. 2) Use a variety of materials.

  First of all - Happy Earth Day!  Secondly, as a brief aside, let me say that this post was not sponsored in any way.  I just personally like the products included here and wanted to share them.  That is all!  As I said, today is Earth Day, which is basically a day set aside to bring attention to the environmental movement, or “to diversify, educate, and activate the environmental movement worldwide”, according to EarthDay.org . I do not in any manner profess to be the leading authority on the environmental movement, but I have made the conscious decision to try to be less wasteful, and to make some small changes in order to do what I can for the planet we call home.  Do I still use single-use plastics, and generate more trash that I probably should?  The answer is yes.  But - doing something is better than doing nothing, and my point here is that even small changes can help. The first change I made was to use less disposable plastic bottles.  I drink a lot of water over the course o

  Recently, as part of the re-launch of the K-Friends program sponsored by the Korea Tourism Organization, individuals were asked to “Find your favorite Korea”, which meant to find something related to Korea in your city, or nearby.  Since I live in the Southern US, this seemed a daunting task, but ended up being a fun experience overall!  A nearby restaurant serves what they call ‘Asian fusion’ cuisine, which includes a dish called kimchi fries. Kimchi is a traditional Korean food and is considered a staple part of a Korean diet.  According to VisitKorea.or , it’s served with every meal in Korea. It typically consists of spiced and fermented Napa cabbage or radish, but can be made with other vegetables too. The kimchi fries dish consisted of stir-fried kimchi, bulgogi beef, cheese, mild Korean sauce, sour cream, scallions and sesame seeds, served over crispy french fries.   Prior to this, I had never tried kimchi or bulgogi beef, but they are truly delicious !  The kimchi was slightl

Memories of Prophecies by Davis Ashura My rating: 5 of 5 stars I was given the opportunity to read an ARC of this book, for which I am eternally grateful. Before we delve into my thoughts - Dear Mr. Ashura, you had better be working on the next book because I'm going to need it immediately, please and thank you. Now, for the book itself. What I adored about 'A Testament of Steel' was that it started off with a bang and kept going. This book was no different. The story picks up right where the first book left off, following our hero, Cinder, in his second year at the Third Directorate, and honestly, the story just never slows down. But in a really, really good way. Trust me. There is so much action in this book! AND all of the action is incredibly well written, to the point that I found myself audibly, literally gasping in response to what was happening on more than one occasion. (I MIGHT have screeched a few times as well while reading bu